A. Technical Field
The disclosure generally relates to the electronic display of documents. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a user interface for use with viewing electronically displayed documents.
B. Related Art
Many factors today drive the development of computers and computer software. One of these factors is the desire to provide accessibility to information virtually anytime and anywhere. The proliferation of notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other personal electronic devices reflect the fact that users want to be able to access information wherever they may be, whenever they want. In order to facilitate greater levels of information accessibility, the presentation of information must be made as familiar and comfortable as possible.
In this vein, one way to foster success of electronic presentations of information will be to allow users to handle information in a familiar manner. Stated another way, the use and manipulation of electronically-presented information may mimic those paradigms that users are most familiar with, e.g., printed documents, as an initial invitation to their use. As a result, greater familiarity between users and their xe2x80x9cmachinesxe2x80x9d will be engendered, thereby fostering greater accessibility, even if the machines have greater capabilities and provide more content to the user beyond the user""s expectations. Once users feel comfortable with new electronic presentations, they will be more likely to take advantage of an entire spectrum of available functionality.
Paper books have a simple user interface. One opens a book and begins to read it. If a user wants to do something to the book (for example, add a textual annotation), he may use a pen or pencil to add a notation in the margin next to a relevant passage of the book. Here, the objects presented to the user include the paper page of the book with two regions (the margin and the text on the page itself) and the writing implement. Other types of actions are also available including bookmarking the page (for example, by folding over the top corner of the page), adding a drawing (using the same pen or pencil discussed above), and highlighting a passage (with a pen or pencil of different color). With these simple objects and tools, a user is able to interact quickly and easily with the pages of the book, creating an environment of active reading with a transparent user interface. Here, for example, a user concentrates on the text, not on the highlighter or pen in her hand when actively reading and annotating (adding a note or highlighting, for instance) the text.
The transition of active reading from the paper environment to the electronic book environment has not projected the same transparent user interface. Rather, electronic documents commonly provide a user interface where one selects an action from a tool bar located at the top of a display (for example, turns on a highlighting tool) then selects the object. This sequence of actions can become cumbersome when switching between actions. For instance, switching between adding a text annotation to adding a drawing requires moving a user""s hand (or other cursor designating device) from the text area to the tool bar (step 1), selecting the drawing tool (step 2), moving the user""s hand back to the text area (step 3), then selecting the object to be annotated (step 4). This number of steps can be compounded if a mistake is made. For example, the user intends to select the drawing tool, but instead selects the highlighting tool. The user then has to move back to the tool bar (step 5), select the correct tool (step 6), move back to the text area (step 7), then select the object to be annotated (step 8). For large displays, the distance one needs to control the cursor to travel is distracting. Importantly, for stylus-controlled input devices, this large distance translates into significant hand or arm movement that requires the user to change the focus of his attention from the text to be annotated to precise navigation over an extended distance. Performed many times, this change in attention may become a significant distraction and eventually force the user to refrain from actively reading a document or book.
While some electronic document editors include the option to display a list of menu items based on a right mouse click over selected text, this option is not readily apparent to all users. One needs to become familiar with a windowing, operating environment prior to learning about this feature. In short, because the right mouse button is a lesser know interface, any listing of options based on the operation of the right mouse button is not intuitive. To most users then, the use of this interface is not known and all advantages that may be potentially available for the users will remain a mystery. To this end, despite the programmers"" efforts to the contrary, all benefits that remain shrouded behind the right mouse click are as if they never existed.
The present invention provides a technique for allowing a user to interact with the electronic display of documents with a simple user interface. Through use of the interface, a user experiences immediate gratification in response to selection of an object or objects. In a first embodiment, a selection of an object results in a display of a list of menu items relevant to the selected object. The user interface for the object is determined based on the type of object selected. Instead of displaying a general user interface for all potential selectable objects, the user interface is tightly associated with the selected object. Through being customized for the selected object (word, margin, page number, title, icon, equation, or the like), the user interface is quick, simple, and unobtrusive. In one embodiment, the goal associated with the user interface includes being functionally transparent to the user. The present application also relates to the mechanism underlying the functionality of the display and operation of the user interface. In the context of the present invention, a xe2x80x9cdocumentxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbookxe2x80x9d encompasses all forms of electronically displayable information including but not limited to books, manuals, reference materials, picture books, etc. Further, the documents or books may include catalogs, e-commerce publications, articles, web pages, and the like.
xe2x80x9cObjectxe2x80x9d as used herein encompasses all displayed information. With reference to looking up information regarding the object, the object may be a word or a group of words, symbols, icons, reference point on a page, page number, equation, margin, title, title bar, corner of the screen, and the like.
For the purpose of this disclosure, annotations are generally related to textual annotations. However, other annotations that may be used include highlighting, drawings (as one would expect to do with a pencil or pen to a paper book), and bookmarks. While the annotations are to be displayed in conjunction with the document, the underlying document is not modified. Related annotations and techniques for creating them are described in the following disclosures:
U.S. Ser. No. 09/456,127, filed Dec. 7, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cBookmarking and Placemarking a Displayed Document in a Computer System;xe2x80x9d
U.S. Ser. No. 09/455,754, filed Dec. 7, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Installing and Using Reference Materials In Conjunction With Reading Electronic Content;xe2x80x9d
U.S. Ser. No. 09/455,805, filed Dec. 7, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Annotating an Electronic Document Independently of Its Content;xe2x80x9d
U.S. Ser. No. 09/455,807, filed Dec. 7, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Capturing and Rendering Text Annotations For Non-Modifiable Electronic Content;xe2x80x9d and,
U.S. Ser. No. 09/455,806, filed Dec. 7, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus For Capturing and Rendering Annotations For Non-Modifiable Electronic Contentxe2x80x9d
which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties for any enabling disclosure.